Malthus’ nightscape is nigh, yo-
Frugal survivalism as if prepping is time sensitive

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Monday, March 21, 2016

grandpappy's prepping 1 of 5

GRANDPAPPY’S PREPPING

I don’t think I’ve done a
gun article for some time here on the blog.I did include them in every issue of Malthusian Survivalist Newsletter,
but less than 17% of you bought those.Which really hurt my feelings since if you had all enthusiastically
embraced that periodical I could have a vast publishing empire established by
now.It was little solace that I
withheld firearms articles from the blog.Well, March 12th or thereabouts Survival Blog had an
inevitably overpriced “survival battery” series of articles which got my blood
pressure elevated to unsafe levels and I thought I’d crank out this puppy (
even as I know most of you will shriek like little school girls on crack, throw
your laptops against the wall in horror, then go start a campaign to blacklist
the very mention of myself or my writing in all other survivalist related works
in retaliation for daring to come anywhere near your sacred cows with a sharp
pointy instrument and a bottle of ketchup ).Those of you not too interested in my trashing semi-auto’s once again
can relax, as I try to focus on the economic aspects of acquiring a battery
rather than the pure logistics of it ( you all know my spiel by now-brain
chemicals will thwart your control on the trigger so you need a mechanism to
conserve never to be replaced ammunition.Bolts and revolvers rather than semi’s ).

*

The sad truth is that this
ain’t your grand pappy’s prepping, yet everyone writing about survivalism
thinks it is.That is one problem with
letting your readers write your blog for you.Yes, they are vastly more knowledgeable than yourself in engineering, medicine,
military structures, firearms mechanics and all the rest.But not many of them are very well read
outside of their specialty ( if there is any one advantage I consider I poses
over most others it is not only my dedication to research but the fact that it
is eclectic rather than specialized ).I
might miss a few details on individual trees-which, granted, can be
important-but at least I can see the forest.One of the biggest issues I see is that everyone acts like we are
preparing for the collapse which is in the future.The collapse already happened, which few
acknowledge, and when they do they think it is a long slow collapse.Which it WAS, back almost fifty years ago.1971 was Peak Energy Production for the US
and 1979 was the same globally.The net
available energy per capita has shrunk since then.Every new swinging cheese dingus birthed
every day takes away another little bit of the share of energy from everyone
else.

*

Here is the reality.Your grandfather had Union wages to spend preparing.Your father had abundant credit to draw on
for preps ( hell, I remember getting an American Express card on a gross $12k
salary in the late ‘80’s, which should tell anybody everything they want to
know about how anyone fogging a mirror got credit if desired ).They both had jobs, outside a few areas.If their area went into a Depression, there
was always the ability to drive away and to the next big opportunity.Where you could find a place to live and a
good enough job.Perhaps not the job you
wanted or were trained for, but still a job.If your college education was wasted, even that wasn’t a big deal as the
financial hit was manageable ( SOOO unlike today ).My father came within something like two
credits of a masters degree in sociology.He had been hired by the state while in college to oversee juvenile
delinquents but then switched to law enforcement.While the college was not wasted, it also
really didn’t get him a job as much as going to the police academy did.He didn’t have tuition debt pulling him down,
either ( at the time departments were not Unionized and pay was paltry,
retirement the big incentive ).

*

The reason everything
sucks so much more today than yesterday-far less pay for the few jobs left, the
far exponentially higher cost for everything, the complete lack of coherent
strategy or intelligent response to problems-is NOT lack of morality or
leadership or vision.Those are symptoms
rather than causes.The cause is
dwindling resources for increasing populations.It is as simple as that.Rush
Limbaugh’s or Glen Beck’s wet dream FedGov position roster would change
nothing.All levels of government taken
over by the Libertarian Party would change nothing.The resources are running out, and so is all
of our luck.1970’s advice on guns
assumes 1970 levels of income and resource availability and population
levels.STOP.For humps sake, think about it.Take a bigger slug of whiskey or coffee,
whichever helps you think more coherently, and ponder a world of less.The world we are in NOW.Not in thirty or ten or two years from now,
but NOW.Think about it for 24 hours,
when I’ll continue this article.

END

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14 comments:

“That is one problem with letting your readers write your blog for you.”

I don't know why, but I always found that to be annoying about that site. Probably because it was more like a forum with the guest posts, but it was in blog format. If you think about it though, it's actually pretty clever? Sit back, let everyone else do all the work, place adds, and let the revenue flow; praise Jesus, hallelujah! Change your name to Huck Finn and call it a day! ;)

“Here is the reality. Your grandfather had Union wages to spend preparing. Your father had abundant credit to draw on for preps ( hell, I remember getting an American Express card on a gross $12k salary in the late ‘80’s, which should tell anybody everything they want to know about how anyone fogging a mirror got credit if desired ).”

I suppose we're old enough James to recall a time when we clearly had more purchasing power with our dollar, and having witnessed that power dwindling first hand. I remember not so many years ago when the top ramen (poor folk food) were $.05 pack on select flavors; 20 for a buck! Not even close to that anymore. Both sets of my grandparents had their homes paid off in about 10 years working ordinary jobs.

At one job that I worked at back in the mid-80's, the manager was complaining that it had been some time since he had a raise. He was making $12.00 an hour. I was young, so perhaps some of this was youthful ignorance, but I remember thinking to myself, “what is this guy complaining about? He's making $12.00 friggin bucks an hour!

What was I making in the '80's. E-4 wages, then I think minimum wage was $3.25. And my sister going through college being snooty and saying it wasn't worth her working at less than $12 an hour ( granted, cost of living in SanFran, but she was still a snooty twat ).

Ahh, I forgot about the evil sister. My dad had one of those, or at least she was greedy. She was executor of the parents will, and when she found out that he had cancer, she promised him his share of the inheritance; 5 years after the last parent died, he never saw a penny! In the event that something happened to him, my brother and I were supposed to get it. She even mentioned it and said that we would receive it shortly; we never saw a penny either. I understand now why he never talked to her.

It's not how much you make that's important. It's how much you have left after you pay bills and such.

I make much less then my younger brother (a LOT less) but I have more disposable income at the end of the month because I have ZERO debt. Everything I have is paid for 100%.

Everything my brother has is debt based so he has ZERO left every month.

He has a high standard of living because he has so much stuff. But he has a very low quality of life because he only sleeps 4.5 hours a night because he has to work so much to pay for his never-ending debt. Once one thing is paid off, he buys a new thing (with credit) ensuring he is always in deep debt. His life SUCKS big time, but he doesn't see it.

I have a good life because I have more time to do what I want instead of working so hard to service debt.

I have time to read, take bike rides and do photography, I love to camp, I target shoot and reload. I build things in the garage out of wood and sell them. In other words I have lots of hobbies that give me a good, stress-free, happy life.

My brother, not so much.

And James as far as your Survivalist Newsletter, I'm not that interested as if it was (or will be) like the blog it dwells on doom & Gloom too much, to much ranting about what prices use to be as compared to today. What was doesn't mean anything, what is does. And I don't want to pay for such a down cast viewpoint.

I'm into finding workable answers (like buying better quality shoes then Wally-World sells so they last) then to just rant about something without a plan to fix the problem.

Nothing wrong with ranting if you throw in a fix along with it, butt many times you don't

James, police and government workers here (around Lompoc!) make big money. Starting police make around 60 grand plus benefits. They can earn much more with overtime. My daughter will apply after she graduates from college. Plus she can shoot people when she feels like it! LOL

It is possible to not-buy a chipboard 30-year mortgage on a 10-year structure with ever-increasing taxes by living in a rented basement for a while. If you work a lot, it's great to have a nice lady upstairs guarding and watching your stuff. You "might" put away a fair amount of financial ounces/digits along with a minimal easy-moving lifestyle. If you are REALLY LUCKY, the good basement situation will be bicycling distance from the job (that comes with a company car or van) so that you can avoid the cost of a personally-owned vehicle. Obviously, you are going to save fortunes by not signalling to the ladies that you are rich and well-hung (SS Camaro, gold-diggers!), waiting until the "really-right" female person wanders into your life of cheapness. Simulate a gambling/alcohol problem by occasionally carrying around paperwork from the "Anon's" or State "keep gambling responsibly" hotline. Mention how great your "sponsors" are in helping get your finances back on-track without BK, and..uh... could you keep that to yourself? $60K/year (+OT!) job might allow good-careful living and saving $19K(+OT!)/yr. The people around you are most-hazardous to keeping money or spending on important things (junk land with secret-squirrel bunker). Why not keep money in a bank or brokerage account? Because it's not hard to find out that it exists and how much it is. Sturdy safe bolted/cast into the corner of the rented basement is the safest place, except for here: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/756734/mtm-survivor-ammo-can-plastic-black

I hate being a sub-letting junior landlord, collecting fractions of bills and rent, dealing with why Bob can't pay and yet is so filthy. Much rather be the only renter in a house owned for a really-long-time by a steady reliable widow who has all the utilities in her name. She might invite you for dinner occasionally...for which you should leave money or do some other significant chore. Busy, really busy.

I must moderate-trust me. You don't want to see what happens otherwise. Sometimes it takes awhile to respond as I only check two or three times a day. No N-Bombs, nothing to get me libeled. Otherwise, have at it. If you criticize me, make sure to praise my hair first.